Stacking Ammunition, Viper Sting, Pet Buffs and Other PTR Updates

Here’s another list of the recent changes the Hunter class has undergone on the Patch 3.1 PTR. Good stuff, have a look…

• Ammunition: All types of gun and bow ammunition now stack to 1000. All quivers and ammo pouches no longer provide haste. 15% ranged haste is now built in to Hunter Autoshot.
• Call Stabled Pet: This new ability lets the hunter remotely access the stable. 30 min cooldown.
• Cunning, Ferocity and Tenacity pets now all have +5% damage, +5% armor and +5% health bonuses. This should make more pet families feel viable, while additional talents have been added to distinguish a pet’s abilities based on its specializations.
• Disengage: Cooldown increased by 5 sec.
• Pets now inherit more spell hit from the hunter. Pets with magic attacks should not require a player to stack additional hit compared to pets with physical attacks.
• Viper Sting re-designed: Stings the target, draining 4% of mana over 8 sec (up to a maximum of 8% of the caster’s maximum mana), and energizing the Hunter equal to 300% of the amount drained. Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on any one target.

The ammo change is nice. That should translate into roughly around 15 more bag slots, by being able to tote around an extra Frostweave Bag.

The Call Stabled Pet skill sounds great. Switching pets on the fly is going to be a nice luxury. No more hearthing back to town, or flying to the nearest stable master to switch pets before a dungeon. Or perhaps your groups struggling and needs an OT… no problem… just call your Tenacity pet.

The pet stat normalization is interesting. Provided the new pet talents that go live are viable enough, this seems like a positive change.

5 more seconds on Disengage. Somewhat of a trivial change in my opinion. It may be a slight nerf for some high ranking arena Hunters, but pretty inconsequential to me.

The +spell hit change is exciting. This is going to bring Loque’nahak’s damage up to par with the Devilsaur I’m thinking. The main problem the Spirit Beast was contending with was Spirit Strike misses. Good job Blizzard.

Viper Sting’s mana drain acting as a Life Steal..?! Oh yeah! This change is almost too good to be true. I just hope it sticks and doesn’t see the nerf bat or get removed before the patch goes live.

Survival

• Explosive Shot: Base damage lowered by 10%. Attack power scaling reduced by 12.5%.

With the proper Glyphs, Survival still looks like it will be putting out awesome damage even with this nerf. With the buffs to pets though, it seems as if BM might be closing the gap.

But what about MM? Where’s the love there?

Pets

• Bullheaded now adds 20% damage reduction for 12 sec along with its current CC-removal effect.
• Cornered: The crit reduction when this ability is active has been increased.
• Feeding Frenzy increased to 8/16% damage up from 6/12%.
• Furious Howl (wolf special ability) now stacks with Battle Shout and Blessing of Might, however, it only affects the wolf and hunter. Its effect and cooldown have been doubled so that it provides the same benefit but isn’t up 100% of the time.
• Gorillas now have a new family ability, Pummel, which works like the warrior ability and has a single rank.
• Grace of the Mantis and Roar of Sacrifice are now also available to Cunning pets.
• New Talent: Shark Attack: This new two-rank talent is available to Ferocity pets. It increases pet damage.
• New Talent: Silverback: This new two-rank talent is available to Tenacity pets. It heals the pet when Growl is used.
• New Talent: Wild Hunt: This new two-rank talent is available to all 3 pet trees. It increases the stamina and attack power inherited from the hunter.
• Roar of Recovery cooldown decreased to 3 min, down from 6 min.
• Thunderstomp is no longer a gorilla-specific family ability and is now available to all Tenacity pets. It has been reduced to one rank.

Holy Cow! Cunning Pets are seeing a lot of attention so far with this new patch – more survivability, a lot more damage, and even more utility. I like it… a lot.

Furious Howl is a godsend for Wolf lovers everywhere.

I’m still eagerly awaiting the announcemt on Pummel’s cooldown. I’m hoping for 30 seconds (21 with 3/3 Longevity). Seems like a good number to me. 🙂

Shark Attack, Silverback and Wild Hunt sound like awesome additions to the pet trees. Now if we could just get back that fifth point…

With all of the buffs to the Cunning Tree including this new 50% shorter cooldown on Roar of Recovery, plus the pet damage normalization, I have to wonder if it will make some of the Cunning family pets Raid viable. Ferocity will still more than likely be the pet of choice, but I”m sure some theorycrafters have paused to consider the new possibilities for Cunning. With the right raid composition and mana recovery, Roar of Recovery could nearly eliminate the need for Viper, thus providing a very nice DPS boost.

Crabadins, Turtledins and Wormadins… I can’t wait! I like this change since us gorilla owners now get Pummel as well. 🙂

More on Ulduar, Dual Specialization, The Argent Tournament and Other 3.1 Patch Notes at MMO-Champion.